NORTH RIDGEVILLE — A youthful candidate for mayor will be manning the booth of the city’s Democratic Central Committee at this weekend’s Corn Festival, but he won’t be chatting up his own campaign.

Anthony Russo, a 19-year-old political science-economics major at the University of Toledo, is slated to work alongside other Democrats in the booth today following a meeting in which a dispute over his party affiliation was smoothed over.

 “We got to hear each other’s side of the story … I wanted to let them know I support the Democratic Party in North Ridgeville,’’ Russo said. “We’re very united. There are no fractures between us.”

Russo met with Andy Young, chairman of the Democratic Central Committee Executive Board, and Ray E. McLaughlin III, the board’s vice chairman. He is not the same Andy Young who is The Chronicle’s editor.

“Andy agreed to come to my Aug. 15 fundraiser, and I agreed to help out at the booth,” Russo said.

Under terms of the compromise, Russo won’t be handing out his own literature or talking up his own campaign — at least not yet.

Instead, he’ll be touting the campaigns for statewide Democratic candidates including Joe Russo (no relation), who’s running for an Ohio Supreme Court justice seat.

Anthony Russo, a lifelong North Ridgeville resident and 2007 graduate of North Ridgeville High School, said he plans to be in the booth most of the afternoon today.

“The booth is for candidates and elected Democrats who have been officially endorsed by the Democratic Central Committee,” Young said. “He’s a good young fellow. He came out and helped set up the booth. Once he’s proven his loyalty to the party by working on behalf of everybody’s campaigns, we’ll see what happens when his race comes about.”

The initial flap arose when Russo announced his candidacy a few weeks ago, only to have the city’s Democrats challenge his party affiliation because he voted Republican in the March primary. Russo said he obtained the GOP ballot to vote for a single candidate who he declined to name.

Both Russo and Young agreed that Russo erred by announcing his candidacy before the matter of his party membership was cleared up to everyone’s satisfaction.

Scheduled to graduate from college in 2011, Russo’s campaign is being organized by Anthony Nici, a Democrat who lost his own mayoral election bid to Republican David Gillock in November 2007.

“We’ve mended whatever angst and frustration we had with this matter,” Young said. “Now we can hopefully move on to more important things.”

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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